


Love or Money

by ElienRey



Category: Sneaky Pete (TV)
Genre: Gen, Post-Season/Series 02, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-12
Updated: 2018-03-31
Packaged: 2019-03-30 13:43:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 7,279
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13952811
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElienRey/pseuds/ElienRey
Summary: Why not both? Marius in the aftermath.





	1. Marius POV

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilers for the entire show, so beware.

In retrospect, he should have know. Should’ve known that after all the shit that went down, there’d be one last bang waiting at the end of it all.

It took him two steps into the living room to realize he’d made a terrible mistake. Not the first, and hopefully not the last. It took him two more to realize he didn’t give a damn anymore. There were eleven million reasons why the gun currently pointed at his head didn’t matter, wasn’t going to stop him from getting what was his, what he’d _earned_ after everything.

He raised his hands as Julia jerked her gun. Taylor had his pointed at the floor, Otto didn’t have anything, but Audrey had her hand casually on the table, the grip of a gun resting lightly beneath her fingers. Three guns, one unarmed man. He smiled.

“Hey, Julia, what’s with the welcome? I mean, I realize you guys are mad at me, but-”

“You wanted your chance to explain yourself,” she interrupted. “Well, you got it, Pete. Explain. Now.” He twitched his fingers toward her gun; it didn’t waver.

“Alright, can I, can I sit down? Or are we just going to stand like this all night?” 

“You don’t have all night,” said Audrey, who still hadn’t bothered to rise. “You have about thirty seconds before Taylor here takes you in for impersonation, fraud, theft-”

“Oh, come on, grandma, you take me down, I take _all_ of you down. Don’t bluff when your cards are already on the table.” He lowered his hands. He’d had enough. 

“Don’t call me that.” Her voice was steel, but it drifted past him like so much fluff. It didn't matter anymore; their anger meant nothing to him, as long as he could still get what he wanted. Audrey was rising, gripping her gun more firmly as if to raise it. Julia’s own hand wavered uncertainly. Marius sat himself down at the table, laid his hands flat against the wood. Otto still hadn’t said anything, and Carly wasn’t even there. 

“So you know,” he said, gaze flicking to all of them. He’d like to say his mind was whirring, but it wasn’t. He was calm in that dead, dangerous way before a storm.

“Yeah, we know. I talked to your parole officer - real risky, that con you pulled. Introducing one of us to someone who knew your identity.” Julia sat down, unconsciously following his lead. She didn’t put the gun away though. 

“Yeah, well, desperate times.” He waved a hand, dismissive. He’d been hanging on a thread with these people for the past week; getting burned now seemed the inevitable conclusion. 

“Why did you come back?” Taylor’s turn. His face was surprisingly calm, but his hands were bunched into fists on the table. 

“I need your help,” Marius hedged, interlacing his fingers on the table and leaning forward, not toward Taylor, but Audrey. She was the one he had to convince. She was always the one. “After everything I’ve done for you, I think I’m owed a little-”

“Done for us!” Otto. He’d been hanging back, but he was angry, Marius could see that now. His face was gradually turning the color of a ripe tomato, and his hands were shaking with barely contained rage. Of all of them, Marius hadn’t expected Otto to be the one most angry. But it made sense, he guessed. After all, he was the one who trusted the most. “You come to our home, our  _ family _ , put everyone in danger! Lie to us, steal from us,  _ use  _ us-”

“Hey, I never stole from you. I borrowed-”

“You took one hundred and fifty thousands dollars!” 

“I gave it back! And in case you hadn’t noticed, Audrey stole it first! If it weren’t for me, you would all still be in that mess-” the slam of a flat palm against the table jolted him and Otto out of their confrontation. Both of them had stood, and they now looked down at Audrey in shock.

“That’s enough, both of you. Pete, Marius, whatever your name is. We’re giving you a chance you frankly don’t deserve here, I suggest you take it. Now explain. From the beginning.” She sat implacable, and Marius slowly slumped down in his chair, looking at all of them. 

Julia, pretending to be unaffected, but showing a glimmer of hurt under everything. She’d perhaps been the closest to him, and if regret was something he allowed himself to feel he’d probably be drowning in it right now. They had made a pretty good team.

Otto, quivering with anger at the threat to his family, probably blaming himself for letting a viper into their nest. 

Taylor, Taylor, his least favorite family member, watching him with that steady, almost predatory gaze. 

And then there was Audrey, waiting, patient. For now.

“The beginning,” he said. Laughed slightly. He remembered Maggie, reading him outside the antique shop.  _ It must be so exhausting _ . And yes, goddammit, he was tired. Tired of playing every situation, every person he met; even his own brother hadn’t been safe from him. And look where it got him. Nothing. Every time, he ended up with less. And he kept telling himself, each time, just reach a little farther, lie a little harder, everything will come together, you  _ won’t  _ get your brains blown out by a maniac, you won’t have to hear your brother’s screams, or watch a boy knifed in the chest, or a man get his face burned off. You won’t be the one with a gun in their hand next time, ready to shoot. 

“Look, me, me and Pete, your, your grandson-” shit, why was this so hard? He told the truth all the time. Nothing but the truth. “We shared a cell, that was true. And he told me about this place, about this family, he built it up like some sort of idyllic haven. I-”

“And you thought you could come in, con a quick buck out of us when you got out? Is that it?” Taylor. He sounded more curious than angry, like he was interrogating a suspect. Like this didn’t matter to him at all.

“No. I-yes. But not how you think. Look, the reason I was in prison. No.” Jesus, this was falling apart. Perhaps the most important con he’d ever tried to pull, and it was falling apart at the seams.  _ Get your story fucking straight, start clear, end clear, no messy divergence unless you want the mess _ . “Look, me, my brother, and our crew, we were pulling a con on this wealthy casino owner. Only it went south. The guy, he killed one of our crew. I ran, robbed a bank with a gun full of blanks, went to prison.”

“This guy happen to be called Vince?” Taylor again. Cop mode activated. 

“Yes. Vince had my brother and another one of us working for him while I was in prison. My brother warned me I had to get clear, hide, that Vince was after us for the money we’d stolen from him.”

“I thought you said it went south.” Audrey.

“Yeah, but before it did we got one hundred thousand out of him. We couldn’t give it back, because we’d already used it to fund the next part of the con.” 

“Wait a minute, you got him to pay for his own con?” Julia, leaning forward across the table toward him, eyebrows raised, almost admiring.

“Yeah, kind of backfired. So I came here, pretended to be Pete. I needed to scrounge up the money before a deadline, or Vince was going to start carving body parts off my brother.” A quick survey of the family showed no sympathy. He hadn’t expected any, but he also hadn’t bothered to conceal the memory of the fear and desperation of that time just - God, what was it? Two weeks ago now? 

“I had to get it fast, or everything would fall apart. I thought this place was a bust, until I learned about the safe, and what was inside - or should have been inside.” He tipped a casual finger toward Audrey whose eyes narrowed. 

“Why did you give the money back?” Taylor, searching for the holes in his story. There were a few. The unadorned truth rarely seemed believable. 

“I needed the money as part of a con, a bigger con.” They didn’t need to know the rest, how he’d taken Vince down, how the bastard had been taken away by the feds, missing a thumb and an empire. “We finished the con, walked away with a lot of money, I gave the money I took back-”

“Yeah, I know, but  _ why _ ? You could have walked away a hundred thousand and fifty dollars richer. Why did you come back?” Taylor’s voice was uncharacteristically soft, as if he was trying not to spook a wild animal. 

“You-you needed the money. You were in trouble. I’m not actually a monster.”  _ But I’m not a good man _ . 

“What I want to know,” said Otto, no less angry, but hiding it better, “is why in God’s name Maggie would go along with this?” 

“She wanted to protect her son, keep him out of Luka’s sights. They already thought I was Pete, it was safer to go along with it, at first. And then-” and then Luka’d burned a man’s face off for the deception, and sealed his own fate along with it. “Things progressed.” Julia snorted at the understatement.

“And when it was all over? Maggie and Pete. They just left here and didn’t say a word about you.” Audrey’s hand gripped her gun tighter. “Tell me, who exactly was my daughter trying to protect by allowing a conman into our family?”

“I-I don’t know.” Marius was beginning to think he didn’t understand Maggie at all. “You’d have to ask her.”  _ I think she thought I needed you more than she did _ , he wanted to say, but the words caught against his teeth. Instead, he told them what he’d told Marjorie. “I think she didn’t want to upset you all even more, after everything that’d happened. And I don’t, I don’t pose a threat to you, I swear. I tried to protect you.” He looked to Julia, too proud to plead, but hoping she would remember that he  _ had _ . She wouldn’t meet his eyes.

“Is that it? Is that your piece?” Audrey, the steel no longer wafting by him but hitting him square in the gut. It wasn’t working. They’d toss him out in the next second, and if he showed his face again they’d probably do worse. No problem though, he’d find a different way to get the money. He didn’t really need them.  _ No, but I  _ want _ them _ , was the treacherous thought in the back of his mind.

“I came because I thought you all might like to know… I saw what Maggie put in that vat. And it sure as hell wasn’t eleven million dollars. I just, you know, thought you might want to know.” 

Audrey’s eyes flicked up to meet his, bottomless brown depths that showed the faintest hint of a flicker of something. He knew when he’d grabbed someone’s attention; now all he had to do was run and hope they’d run with him.

 


	2. Julia POV

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Julia confronts Marius and gets more than she bargained for.

“Sooo you remember that time, you know, when you told me to shoot a guy through a door, and then you said you were just being paranoid and I should forget all about it?” She’d cornered him in the kitchen. He’d been sent to fetch coffee by Audrey, despite the time of night and all of their exhausted nerves. Julia figured it was just an excuse to get him out of the living room, and maybe test some boundaries. What does the resident conman do when sent on a coffee run? 

Apparently, make coffee if he needs you enough. What Julia didn’t get was why he needed them at all.

Marius turned, eyebrows raised, lips pursed as if he knew exactly where she was going with this. “Yeah, I remember, you know, that time I saved your life…”

“Nice try, Marius.” She put a special emphasis on the name, now that it was applied to the right person. That other, strange man they’d met, he’d been the real Pete. He looked a hell of a lot more like a Bernhardt, now that she thought about it. That man had been big, like Taylor, his blond hair a match for her memories of the real Pete. What must it have been like for him, to sit with them all as a stranger and watch someone else be their family? 

_I guess eleven million dollars makes people do some crazy shit_ , she thought.  


Marius was waiting for her to continue, perhaps waiting for her to play her hand. She walked forward instead of talking, crowding him against the counter. “Really?” he said. “Are you, what, intimidating me?” He laughed, not a second of unease in his posture. “‘Cause I gotta tell you, I’ve been”—she slammed her hand against the counter behind him—“intimidated by a lot worse than you.” 

This close she could see how exhausted he was, dark shadows under his eyes, something weary in his expression, as if he was ready for what came next and couldn’t bring himself to care anymore. She stepped back as if she’d been burned.

“I just wanted to say thanks,” she changed directions, and his eyebrows hit his hairline. “All those times you helped me, you really didn’t need to. With everything else that was going on, it must’ve been pretty inconvenient to keep bailing me out.”

“Hey, you bailed me out too. We helped each other.” He still hadn’t let down his guard, standing stiff against the counter, an empty mug in his hand. She snorted, moving to the side and casually leaning against the counter. If open hostility didn’t work, she’d try playing his game for a while. Not that she thought she could possible beat him at it. When she thought of the lengths he’d gone to, the emotional reservoirs he’d pulled from to fool them all, it made her seriously consider whether or not he was entirely sane. Then again, were any of them?

“Look, I did what I did,” he said, as if reading her thoughts, “to save my family. Surely you, of all people, understand that.”

“Yeah, I do.” She gave him a stiff nod, refusing to look away from him, to give him any respite from examination. He didn’t seem bothered. “Which is exactly why I will  _ end  _ you if you put any more of my family in danger. And don’t” —she held up a forestalling hand—”give me any of that ‘but I saved your lives’ crap. If you put them in danger in the first place, doesn’t really count, does it?” 

“I-I didn’t.” He finally looked away, towards the floor. “Luka did that. Whatever he did, whoever he killed, that’s on him, not me.” 

“Is that what you have to tell yourself?” She could see his weakness now, the guilt that he  _ had  _ to be feeling, somewhere deep down there. It relieved her, to know he could still feel at least that. Perhaps they weren’t making such a devil’s bargain here after all. “Because the way I see it, if you’d never come back here at all, stolen into our lives, none of this”—she waved a hand, encompassing the events of the past two weeks, including her ill-fated deal with Dockery, including her run in with Luka’s men, including the mess with Winslow—”ever would have happened. You have to understand that, right? Cause, effect, not hard to understand.” She could feel the anger creeping back into her voice, and the way he wasn’t meeting her eyes anymore didn’t help. 

“Everyone made their own choices.” His voice was a rasp, low and distant. “You chose to make that deal with Dockery, I didn’t force you. Maggie chose to steal that money, not me. Gina chose to take money from them, from me, I didn’t make that choice for her. And Joe,” he laughed. “Joe made his bed long before I came along. Hell, even Charles, Charles knew the risks!” His voice rose, his eyes finally rose to meet hers, burning with something she didn’t understand. The names she didn’t understand either, and sensed this wasn’t the moment to ask. Apparently he’d gotten a lot of people killed. “And Eddie! Fuck Eddie, he was  _ stupid _ and he got his fucking toe cut off for it! All he had to to was sit tight, and I was gonna save him. That’s not on me, okay! I didn’t-” he seemed to realize he was slipping out of control, made a visible effort to rein himself in, “I can’t control everything.”

“You’re a confidence man,” said another voice in the doorway. She turned sharply, her brother was leaning casually against the door frame. How long he’d been there, she didn’t know. She hoped for a good long while. “Doesn’t that make it your job to control everything? Also, what’s taking so long with the coffee? Actually, scrap it, get me a beer instead.” He crossed his arms, raised his eyebrows. She could tell bully mode had been activated. She couldn’t exactly feel sorry for Pe-Marius. 

“You can walk, can’t you?” Marius snapped, withdrawing back into himself. The raw emotions of the past few minutes were gone as if they’d never been, the only evidence of their presence a deepening of the shadows under Marius’s eyes. He turned to the counter, yanked the coffee pot out of the coffee maker with more force than necessary, poured two cups - probably just for Audrey and Otto - and brushed past them toward the door. Taylor grabbed his arm, careful not to spill the coffee, but hard enough he wasn’t moving without a struggle. 

“I said get me,” he spoke slowly, as if to a child, “a beer.” 

“Get your hand off me,” Marius spoke in turn, voice low and dangerous. 

“Stop it, both of you,” Julia snapped, but neither looked at her. She felt suddenly dismissed, the old childhood feeling of being  _ left out _ clamping down on her. It was silly, and Marius wasn’t even Pete, he hadn’t even been there to leave her out of anything. She went to the fridge, teeth clenched in what she knew was childish anger, grabbed a beer from the pack, put it in Taylor’s other hand. “Stop it with the macho posturing, alright? It doesn’t help anyone.” She was talking to Taylor, but she obliquely included Marius. 

He was standing tense as a tightly strung wire. If he’d been another man, he probably would’ve decked Taylor right there. The two would’ve had it out, exchanged a few punches, and then knew where they stood. But Marius didn’t fight like that. And Taylor probably thought he had the upper hand because of it. 

“I’d listen to your sister, if I was you,” said Marius. He pulled his arm out of Taylor’s slackening grip, and disappeared out of the kitchen a little too quickly.

“So you’re sticking up for him now, is that it?” Taylor turned on her, eyebrows raised. He twisted the top off his beer bottle. 

“No, I’m sticking up for  _ you _ . Look, I know this guy better than any of you, alright?” She leaned closer to him, keeping her voice low. “He’s  _ dangerous.  _ You do not want him for an enemy.” Taylor snorted, but she put a hand on his arm to forestall him. “Just trust me, okay?”  _ Please somebody just fucking  _ trust _ me for once _ , she thought.  _ I  _ know  _ what I’m talking about.  _ Taylor, after a moment of staring down at his beer, nodded once, curtly, before leaving her in the kitchen. 

“Fuck me,” she breathed out as soon as she was alone, “I need a nap.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm pretty sure they all need a nap at this point.


	3. Otto POV

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Otto's been burned one too many times.

It’d been 11 days now since Otto had opened the door and found his grandson standing there, sickly smile on his face, looking nothing like the bright happy boy who had left with his mother twenty years ago. Not a day had gone by that Otto hadn’t regretted that moment, that some part of him hadn’t hated Audrey, in the aftermath of everything and the knowledge he would probably never see either of them again, for driving Maggie away. For depriving Pete of a stable home.

He should be happy that he’d seen his daughter again, but after the initial joy of reunion, her presence had been salt in a still healing wound rather than any kind of salve. Knowing what she had become away from them, and he knew,  _ knew  _ this family wasn’t winning any awards for moral purity, but knowing how much danger Maggie had put herself in, had put  _ Pete  _ in… 

And Pete-Marius, the imposter she’d foisted on them even as she escorted their actual grandson from the house—would they ever see him again?—Marius was all they had left of her now. Her last stab at revenge, an uncharitable part of him murmured, her departing message: you’re not worthy of the real thing.

Otto found a steaming cup of coffee wavering under his nose. 

“Hey, um, Otto, I’m sorry it took so long.” Marius was in front of him, hunched down slightly, half turned away. Otto had been so happy to have them all together again. Of course, it had blown up in all their faces the next second, one disastrous dinner and what Otto had thought at the time were Audrey’s unfounded suspicions, had set reality crashing down on top of them all.

“Otto,” said Marius when he didn’t take the cup, “are you okay? Alright, stupid question, none of this is remotely okay, I get it—”

“You get it?” Otto’s voice to his own ears was eerily calm, although inside everything was an unholy mess. “One of your long lost relatives come back to the family, almost get everybody killed, and then leave you with a greedy, ruthless conman?”

“Okay, wait a minute,” he put down the coffee mug, raised an ingratiating hand. “That’s not quite what—”

“That’s exactly how it is, Marius.” And then there was Audrey, Audrey whom he owed about a thousand apologies by now, again, for the second time in as many weeks. The one good thing to come out of this mess was that he felt more in sync with her than he had in years. “I’ll grant you helped us in the past, but  _ only  _ to help yourself. I’m not blaming you. From what you told us we’ve all had a rough time of it. But there’s no way in hell we’re ever trusting you again.” Otto, this close to Marius, saw the almost imperceptible flinch of his shoulders against the words.

“You’re not used to this, are you? Seeing the face of your victims after you’re done with them.” Otto found the words spilling out, the rage underneath tempered by a veneer of gentleness. “I guess you usually just take the money and run. Consequences aren’t something you bother with.” Marius twitched slightly in response, and then something seemed to snap in him.

“I’ve been running in survival mode for as long as I can remember, Otto. There isn’t much time for thinking about cause and effect when you’ve got to put food on the table for your mess of a family or not get your friends killed, or, I don’t know, listen as a sadistic  _ fuck  _ cuts your little brother’s fucking  _ toe off _ .” The last was a wrecked growl, and Otto felt for the first time actual fear when he looked at the unassuming man before him. They’d shared a beer and a con together, and he’d enjoyed his company whenever it had been available, but he’d never got the impression he’d ever actually  _ known  _ “Pete”. 

He wasn’t sure he wanted to see these tattered shreds of the real man behind the mask. “I’m sorry,” Marius said pulling back, a flicker of surprise across his face, “you guys don’t need my shit, I get that. I’ll go, I’m gone. I said what I came here to say. Have a nice life, good luck with that money laundering thing.” He flicked a hand toward Julia, turned in almost the same motion.

He was so brusque and put together now, it was almost as if the break had never happened. Otto watched him head toward the door, not sure whether to feel triumph or not.

“Wait,” said Audrey. Marius paused in the doorway, hand poised to push it open. “Marius. Is my daughter in danger?” 

“Of course she is. She stole eleven million dollars from a crime lord. Money like that, people tend to pay attention when it goes missing.” 

“Luka’s dead,” said Julia, standing in the kitchen doorway, fingers clenched against the neck of a beer bottle. 

“Luka’s the tip of the iceberg. He had suppliers, associates. He needed that money for a reason; whoever takes his place is going to need it too. And not everybody knows she dumped some of it in a vat of acid. That was for my benefit. Mine and Luka’s. Whoever goes looking for it now is looking for the full payload.” 

“Which she can’t deliver. And what, exactly, are you planning to do about it?” Audrey sounded as if she very much knew the answer already. 

“Running for the hills seems like everyone’s best option here, Audrey.” Marius turned around, a mocking tilt to his head.

“Then why are you still here?” Taylor was standing against the far wall, arms crossed. Otto hadn’t even noticed him come in, but he too had a bottle dangling from his fingers.

“I  _ told  _ you,” Marius spat, anger curdling his tone, “I’m warning you, you idiots.

“Idiots, wow, what a charmer,” Taylor muttered. Marius ignored him. 

“If you aren’t in danger now, you will be very soon. Look, just watch your backs, okay? All of you.” He deflated almost as soon as his anger had appeared, eyes roving over each of them as if he were memorizing their faces. Otto felt treacherous sympathy rising in him. Marius turned to leave for what Otto knew would be the final time. 

“Wait.” Otto was surprised at the voice before he realized it was his own. He couldn’t let it end like this. They didn’t owe Marius anything, but Marius at least owed them the safety of their daughter. “Stay for dinner, just tonight.” He looked to Audrey, whom he saw didn’t appear the least shocked at his change of heart. “We’ll figure something out to keep us _all_ safe.” 

Marius glanced between him and Audrey as if checking to see they were in accord. “Okay, one night, then I’m gone.” 

“Thank God,” Taylor muttered, taking a swig from his beer.

“Amen,” Julia raised her own bottle in comic salute. Audrey shot them a glare, less a defense of Marius than a censorship of their blasphemy. This was going to be a long night.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, Otto is hard for me to write. I hope he seems in character.


	4. Carly POV

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Carly gets the lowdown. Endless mockery ensues.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Spoilers for the movie The Visit.

She came home from Laney’s house way too late and smelling faintly of weed, not bothering to cover the smell or disguise her entrance. The people who had lied to her for the past twelve years of her life didn’t get to complain about a little weed. She banged the door open. She could see they were all still awake. From the outside window they were a quaint family gathering, passing bowls of mashed potatoes and corn around the table like it was an ordinary, Sunday night dinner. Their powers of denial were so strong, it was pathetic sometimes. 

Carly thought about avoiding the dining room entirely, heading up to her room instead and letting the weed take her under for a well deserved, eight hour long sleep. But curiosity, as always, got the better of her. She poked her head into the dining room, the clatter of dishes and murmured conversation momentarily ceased. Not just ceased, she noticed, froze in mid movement. 

“Hey,” she said, head tilted, “why do you look like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar? Are you all plotting crime again?” 

“We don’t plot crime, Carly,” Audrey scolded. “Now sit down and eat.” She pointed with a finger that would brook no argument to an empty chair next to Julia.

“Fine.” Carly shrugged. The munchies were kind of setting in. “Hey Jules,” she said as she slid in beside her. Pete was across the table, staring at his mashed potatoes as if they held the secrets of the universe. “Hey Pete. Kind of thought you were leaving, you know, with everything.”

Pete raised his eyes, his eyebrows soon following as he shot a look at Julia. Julia shook her head. Great, more secrets. If there was a game show on TV for family with most secrets in the world, the Bernhardt clan would definitely win. Maybe that’s what they needed to pull the family business out of the dumps, a sweet reality show deal. Of course, they’d probably all be arrested as soon as the family skeletons jumped out of the closet.

“No, I—” He stuttered slightly, glancing around the table. Something was definitely off. “I’m staying for tonight, then I’ll be gone.”

“One last dinner with the fam,” she said, nodding. She’d wanted to leave before, considered him lucky, but now he seemed sad rather than cool. Maybe she was growing up, just a little bit. 

“We’re not his family,” said Audrey, casually wiping her mouth clean of some gravy. Carly snorted.

“Are we back to the whole daughter-who-must-not-be-named bullshit? Except they both kinda don’t get named around here. The daughters-you-know-who.”

“That’s enough.” It was Taylor, surprisingly. He was sitting next to Pete and diagonal from her. He didn’t look angry, more apprehensive.

“What?” She sobered, looking to Audrey. “Is something wrong? I mean, wronger than it usually is around here?”

“So, are we telling her, or?” Julia put her utensils down, wide eyes looking between Otto and Audrey and flicking briefly to Pete. 

“We have to,” said Otto. “What if he tries to use her against us? Or manipulate her into doing something for one of his cons?” 

“I don’t use kids.” From across the table she could see Marius’s fingers turning white against his fork. For the first time, a current of fear ran through her.

“Okay, what the hell is going on?”

“This isn’t Pete. Do you remember Marius Josipovic?” Julia asked, hands fiddling nervously with her napkin.

“That weird guy with Aunt Maggie? Uh, yeah, why?” She’d found him when none of the rest of them could, or even thought they should. Of course she remembered him.

“That’s the real Pete,” said Julia. 

“I’m sorry, what?” She was starting to think they’d all overindulged on her stash. “That makes zero sense, Aunt Maggie-”

“She lied to us,” said Audrey. “All of us, including you. I’m sorry, Carly.”

“If he’s not Pete,” she looked at him for the first time since this bizarre conversation had begun, “if he’s not Pete, then who is he? And why would he say he’s Pete if he’s not Pete? Who in their right mind would want to be related to us?” Marius loosened his grip on his fork, letting it clatter to the plate. He leaned back in his seat, smiling slightly at her.

“It seemed like a good idea at the time.” 

“Yeah, and how’s that working out for you now?” She cocked a challenging eyebrow at him. 

“Not so good, but hey, I’m still alive, right?” 

“Uh, was them”—she gestured to the rest of the family, sitting silent and wary—”murdering you ever an option? Because if so I’d like to opt out.”

“Carly!” Julia said, putting a restraining hand over hers. “We don’t murder people in this family, okay? And I cannot believe I just had to say that.” She put her head in her hands, moaning in an entirely too dramatic fashion.

“Okay, so if that big lug is the real Pete, then who the hell-ooooh,” Carly’s brain spasmed as it abruptly caught up with the plot. “ _ You’re  _ Marius Josipovic. You switched out their files! That is so cool, how did you do it? Wait, no, I’m pretty sure the question is still  _ why  _ did you do it? I mean, that’s insane. Are you insane? Are you an escaped mental patient like in that one dumb movie with the crazy grandparents that Audrey hates?”

“No idea what you’re talking about but no, I have never been involuntarily locked in a mental asylum.”

“Does that mean you’ve been voluntarily locked in a mental asylum?” Pete-Marius, while he’d been interesting to her before, had increased his intrigue by about ten million. 

“The  _ point is _ ,” said Julia, butting in again, apparently recovered from her fit of despair, “the point is Pete, I mean Marius, is not to be trusted.”

“We probably shouldn’t trust the real Pete either, come to think of it,” said Taylor, taking a huge bite out of his chicken leg. 

“You shouldn’t trust anyone,” said Marius. “Best policy for living a long and healthy life.” 

“Okay, okay, so he’s not Pete, he’s Marius Josipovic, for some reason he’s masquerading as Pete Murphy—I guess you thought we had money right?” Her brain was still putting things together, but a picture was forming, and some of his behavior made a lot more sense now. Not to mention the things he knew, like how to pick a pocket, the slight of hand tricks—he was a conman, she realized. Coolness factor increased yet again. 

“You did have money, after I got it back for you.”

“Not  _ our  _ money. We’re like, dirt poor at this point.”

“Carly, we are not, nor have we ever been dirt poor,” Audrey snapped. “We are getting back on our feet, that’s all.”

“Uh-huh,” said Carly. “So you came here, got the money, gave the money back? And then decided to hang around until we figured out you weren’t really Pete? And introduce the real Pete to us? Either you are the worst conman ever or there’s something you are all majorly not telling me. I think it might just be both.” 

“Carly, that’s enough.” Taylor, putting on his most authoritative cop voice. “We’ve told you what you need to be safe. Aunt Maggie and Marius, and cousin Pete too, are not to be trusted. They ask you to do something, you say no and come directly to us, okay? A stranger approaches you, do not talk to them, get away as—”

“I know about stranger danger, Taylor. You only gave me this talk about every other week when I was in elementary school. Don’t talk to them and if they try to grab you, kick them in the balls. I get it.”

“What if it’s a woman? Where do you kick them then?” asked Marius, apparently genuinely interested.

“Uh, the same place, duh. We don’t discriminate in this family, Marius. You’re going to have to learn if you want to be a member.”

“Carly,” said Audrey from her place at the head of the table. Steely matriarch to the end, even after discovering the cuckoo in her nest. “This is serious. We’re trusting you enough to tell you the family is in danger.”

“Trusting me enough? If you trusted me, you’d have told me  _ why  _ the family is in danger, and what exactly has been going on for the past two weeks, wait, no, make that the past twelve fucking years.” A deafening silence greeted her. “No one? Okay, bye, I’m going to bed.” She scooted her chair back, throwing her napkin against the table in what was definitely not a satisfying gesture. 

“Wait.” Marius. His voice was low, gravelly, and stopped her in her tracks. “Your family is trying to protect you, Carly. Not many people in this world are going to do that for you. There are worse things than a few secrets.” She wanted to protest, she wanted to throw his own secrets back at him, reveal his and all the rest of their hypocrisy, but the look on his face when she turned around—he looked wrecked, like he’d reached his last straw about ten years ago and just kept going. 

“Uh, okay, yeah,” was what stupidly stuttered out of her mouth, before she retreated up the stairs. The phone rang loudly behind her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm leaving the mystery of the Bowmans' deaths unsolved here, since I obviously don't know it.


	5. Eddie POV

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eddie, trying to move on.

After the years under Vince’s thumb, freedom was a bewildering thing. He’d spent the first day after arriving in Vegas mostly sleeping. They’d picked a middle of the road casino, posing as naive tourists here on a hastily planned honeymoon after a more hastily planned wedding.

“Two days and I knew he was the one,” Karolina had gushed, flicking her hair back, cheeks flushing. Eddie, bruises still pooling under his eyes, had clung to her side a little too fiercely.

“More like two hours,” he’d corrected, pretending he was Marius and everything was perfectly normal. The bored concierge had put on an indulgent smile and checked them in under the names Kathy and Thomas Wainwright. They’d paid in cash.

That first night they slept deeply. Next to each other, but carefully separate.

The second day they’d got to work. They had a lot of money and not much time to secure it. Fortunately neither of them were strangers to wealth, although usually they were the ones liberating it rather than making sure no one else could.

“Look at us,” he’d said on the fourth day, shooting the cuffs of his Armani shirt in a fancy tailor’s full length mirror. “A junkie and a mobster for parents, respectively,” he swished an elegant hand in her direction, “who’da thunk, huh? Geez, this binds.” He tugged at the thighs of the pants, squirming a little in the stylish but tight fit.

“It’s the look these days,” she said in her native accent, shedding the Midwestern drawl she’d adopted recently. “You look very nice.” She smiled at him in the mirror, her hands on his shoulders. He knew they’d probably never be anything other than strange sort of surrogate siblings, but it was nice to have her here. He wouldn’t know what to do completely alone.

He’d always had Marius there to tell him what to do, where to go, who to be. And that sounded like he should resent his big brother, but it had never been like that. Eddie had been happy to follow, knowing Marius would always keep him safe.

The missing toe didn’t change that, he thought, feeling the still aching remains of the digit bunched up in his shiny, tasselled shoe. Eddie had messed up, just like he always did, and he’d been sent away because of it.

“You’re not cut out for the life. I’m right, I’m _right_ ,” Marius had said, and Eddie couldn’t deny it at all. Even a little bit. He was glad Marius was rid of him now, free to do his own thing without the burden of a little brother always hanging on his coattails. Marius didn’t even have to feel guilty about leaving him because he’d set Eddie up with everything he’d ever wanted. A person to share his life with, a job dealing in Vegas, and enough money that he’d never go hungry again.

He slipped on the jacket to distract himself, Karolina stepping back as if sensing he needed space. He felt a crinkle in the inner pocket as he pulled the front more snug against him. He reached in, thinking something must have been left behind by a previous customer. He pulled out a scrap of paper, unfolding it casually, not expecting to find anything but maybe a hastily scrawled shopping list. On the paper was carefully lettered in almost painfully precise calligraphy a single name. It made his blood freeze in his veins, the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. Marius Josipovic.

There was a fancy scrawl under the letters, and then beneath that were ten digits. A phone number, his shocked and lagging brain supplied.

“Holy shit,” he said, and Karolina was there instantly, taking the paper from his slackening fingers.

“Marius, what have you done now?” she murmured, but she slipped the paper into her purse, and they left straight after, Eddie telling the bewildered tailor he’d be back to make an order later.

They made sure no tail was following them, made it back to the hotel an hour later, flushed and shaking, memories of the last three years dogging their steps. Marius had been in prison, which was probably its own kind of hell for him, but Eddie and Karolina had been in the belly of the beast. Eddie had no wish to repeat the experience. Ever. He snapped his fingers toward Karolina’s bag once they were safely shut into their room.

“Give it here,” he said, digging in his pocket for a lighter. The lighter, a fancy zippo he'd stolen off a business man, was the remnant of a bad habit he’d never quite caught. In his teen years he’d thought it’d be cool to light up a joint now and then with his buddies, but the look on Marius face when he’d come home one day to find Eddie high as fuck… Eddie never wanted to see that look on anyone’s face again.

He kept the lighter though. It had been endlessly impressive to his friends at the time. He flicked it open now, in preparation for burning whatever it was that’d landed in their life. They didn’t need this shit again.

“What are you doing?” Karolina, who had drawn the paper from her purse, held it away from him. “We have to see what this message means, Eddie. We can’t just turn a blind eye. Marius could be in danger.”

Eddie stopped cold. Of course, of course, why hadn't he thought of that? Stupid, stupid. He put the lighter away, snatched the paper from her grip.

“We should call, right? I mean, whoever left this wanted us to, but we should know.” He fluttered the paper in the air, headed toward the hotel’s phone.

“Eddie, Eddie, think. We can’t risk leading whoever it might be back to us. We need to use the burner phone.”

“Right, I know that.” He did an about face, frustrated at himself for panicking like this over a scrap of paper. Almost as soon as they’d arrived here, Karolina had purchased a burner, along with their fake IDs. She pulled it out now, hesitating over the buttons. “I can do it,” he offered, knowing he’d probably just fuck it up some more.

“It’s alright, Eddie,” said Karolina. Not trusting him. “I think since the message was for you, perhaps you shouldn’t be the one to make the call.” He twitched a shoulder in reluctant agreement, and she dialed the number. He held his breath. It rang for a long time, and Eddie moved closer, pushing his ear almost against the phone in order to hear. It picked up after a long minute, a woman’s voice on the other end.

“Hello? It’s a little late to be calling, whoever this is.” She sounded brusque, annoyed. But maybe there was a little bit of fear too.

“I’m sorry, is Jane Litfield there?” said Karolina, slipping into a British accent without missing a beat.

“Jane Litfield?” the woman asked, bewildered. “I’m afraid you have the wrong number, miss. This is the Bernhardt residence.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, my mistake.” Karolina hung up, and Eddie finally breathed. The two looked at each other.

“I think we gotta go to Bridgeport,” said Eddie.

“I think that’s a good idea,” said Karolina. They started packing immediately.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Look, a plot! Sort of.


End file.
